Tanking 101: Protection Paladin

Tanking in Warcraft is one of the most challenging and rewarding roles you can play. It's great fun once you get a handle on it - no queues for dungeons, epic armour to wear, leading the charge into battle, and being generally awesome.

There's a lot of guides out there for the end-game tank, but it's hard to learn how to start. This guide will step you through setting up to be a tank, and your first dungeon run.

Getting to level 10

For the first 10 levels, all Paladins play the same way. Take your time to move through the starter areas, and learn the basic mechanics of the game. One thing you should do early on is to turn on enemy 'nameplates', which will mean you can click easily on the mob name when you attack them. This makes it easy to move between different attackers when there is a group. The default for toggling this setting is the v key.

Nameplates off (left) vs nameplates on (right)

As you advance to level 10, you'll get several abilities that will remain stalwart friends for your tanking journey:

Judge your enemies (and find them guilty). This is a ranged attack, so you don't have to be in melee.

9

Your base healing spell - use it to keep yourself alive.

You'll want to put these abilities on your action bars in easy reach as you'll be using them frequently. It make sense to map your key tanking abilities to commonly used keys as soon as you start out, so that by the time you're actually tanking the key presses are second nature. See the Action Bar Layout section below for details.

Level 10-15: Specialisation time

It shouldn't take you long to reach level 10, at which point you have a major decision to make: Do you want to tank, be a damage dealer, or healer?

Obviously we want to be a tank! So you need to choose the Protection specialty when prompted.

One of the most entertaining Abilities in the game - hurl your shield Captain America style, striking three enemies. Has the added bonus of silencing your first target, which is incredibly useful for hitting spell casters and effectively forcing them to approach into your melee range.

You can't start tanking Dungeons right away, as there's a few more skills you need. The great thing is you can immediately start using the skills and rotation that will serve you all game long. Quest mobs will die just as fast as the other specialisations, and you get the added bonus of throwing your shield around.

You'll get another couple of crucial abilities on the way to level 15:

A key tanking passive ability, this makes you much more threatening to your enemy, keeping them focussed on your rather than the rest of your party. Always have this one turned on - turn it on once, and you'll never have to turn it off.

Another vital ability, Reckoning taunts bad guys, forcing them to attack you. You'll use this constantly as you tank, pulling enemies off your healers and DPS.

Level 15: The Tanking Rotation

At Level 15 you have everything your need to start tanking. All the key Abilities have unlocked, and the dungeon queuing system is activated for you. You should also spend your first Talent point. Choosing 正义追击 is your best choice - giving you a base 15% speed increase, which will help you run to and between enemies more efficiently.

Next we need to layout the rotation you will use for tanking.

Your 'rotation' is basically a way of describing the optimum order in which you should use your skills and Abilities. For the baby Paladin, it's thankfully nice and simple, but very effective:

This is your priority system - use each of these abilities as they become available to you, in that preference order. You'll find you generally swap back and forth between 十字军打击 and 审判, with 复仇者之盾 thrown in when it becomes available ('off cool down').

A fight should go something like this: Approach an enemy, and throw your shield at it with 复仇者之盾. It will also hit two nearby mobs, who should all start charging toward you. Next, strike them with your 十字军打击, then hit them with 审判. Repeat this rotation until everything is dead.

It's worth noting that when you approach a group of enemies, it's a good idea to always target a caster with your 复仇者之盾. Your shield hurl will stop them from casting for a few seconds, which means they'll run into your melee range instead of standing back out of harms way.

If any enemies start attacking the rest of your party, use 清算之手 to force them to pay attention to you again. You can use any of your ranged abilities - 清算之手 or 复仇者之盾 or 审判 - to pull enemies that might wander into range from nearby, effectively inviting them to join in the fight. This is recommended, as it means the new arrival will attack you rather than someone else in the party (your healer is particularly vulnerable to wandering attacks).

Action bar layout and key mapping

The key to being an effective tank (or healer or DPS) is to have your Ability bars setup so that your most used skills are in easy reach and in logical order. The sooner you do this, the better you muscle memory will be for when you have to use quick reactions to save the day.

Everyone has different preferences when it comes to bar setup and keyboard mapping. My preference is to setup two bars, one with the keys 1-12 mapped, one with the keys F1-F12. The next two steps explain how to do that, but you should use the keys that are most comfortable for you.

The first thing you should do is turn on an extra Ability Bar to show above the defaults. You can do that by opening the Game Menu (esc key) and choosing Interface. Next click ActionBars, the check the Bottom Left Bar box (you can also add any others you might like). Now you'll have an extra row of buttons above your defaults. Bonus tip: While you're in this screen, click the Show Numbers for Cooldowns checkbox. This will show you a numerical countdown on action bar icons for when your abilities will next become available - very handy.

The second thing is to map keys to those action bars, so you can simply press a key to use and Ability, rather than having to click it with your mouse. To map keys, open the Game Menu again, and click Key Bindings. Next click Action Bar, and notice how Action Button 1-12 are mapped to Keys 1-12. We want to do the same thing for the new bar you've added above. Click on MultiActionBar, and note that none of the BottomLeft Action Buttons are set. Click the first one, and press F1 on your keyboard - that key is now mapped to that action bar button. Repeat this for keys 2-12.

As a baby tank, you'll only need to use the first 3-4 keys, which keeps things nice and simple. I tend to use the 1-4 keys as the main abilities, with F1-F4 used for abilities with longer cool-downs or more situational use.

The easiest to reach keys have the most commonly used abilities. The good news is that even at much higher levels, those two abilities are the key rotation priorities, so setting them up like this now means you won't have to relearn later.

The longer cooldown and situational abilities are on the Function keys. You can stab F1 when 复仇者之盾 comes off cooldown, and poke F3 when you need to taunt a mob with 清算之手. Your less used heal is available if needed on F4. Notice I've left F2 free - that's to assign to another higher priority ability (such as ) once it becomes available at later levels. This way you can start to reinforce your key maps and rotations early on.

You action bars should now look something like this:

As mentioned, there are many many ways to map your keys. Some prefer using keys like Q/E/Z/C due to their proximity to WASD. Find what works for you early and stick to it - it will pay dividends in the long run.

Dungeon time: Ragefire Chasm

You're level 15. Your action bars are ready. You've memorised your rotation. Time to hit a dungeon and use all these skills!

Your key role in a dungeon is to draw the attention of the mobs in there, and keep it. This is called threat (or 'agro'), and it is your friend. You basically want to always have the highest threat on your enemies, which will mean they attack you instead of everyone else. You keep threat/agro by doing damage, using your abilities, and generally drawing attention to yourself whenever you can.

The first dungeon you can tank is called Ragefire Chasm, a hidden dungeon below the Orc fortress of Orgrimmar.

Study the map to check the route through the dungeon in advance - it's a fairly linear path, but it's worth taking a look before going into any dungeon. One of the things about being a tank is there's an expectation you'll know your way around, but don't be afraid to ask others to show the path.

Before starting, double check you have 正义之怒 enabled, as well as for the DPS and threat boost.

Queue up using the Dungeon Finder (press the i key). You'll probably zone in almost instantly - tanks (and healers) are often in demand. Introduce yourself to the party, pick up the quests, and get ready for your first pull. If it's your first time, it's worth telling the party that - ask them to be patient, and to let you do the pulling. Most groups are happy to help out.

Trash

The majority of tanking in Dungeons is working your way through trash mobs - all the lowly minions that are there protecting the bosses. Trash is generally treated as easy-mode, but dealing with trash is one of the most important ways of learning how to tank.

Ragefire Chasm has plenty of trash to deal with, with a mixture of casters and melee, so it's ideal for learning.

The first thing you'll see is a bunch of Hounds waiting to be attacked. Target one, and use your 复仇者之盾 to throw your shield as you run toward them. The mobs will run to you and start attacking. When you meet, start your rotation: use your 十字军打击, followed by 审判, and repeat between those two as they become available. Anytime 复仇者之盾 comes up, throw your shield again.

You should find that all the mobs are attacking you, while your party are attacking them, and your healer will keep you alive. If a mob starts attacking anyone but you, use 清算之手 to pull their attention back to you. Once the group is finished off, move on to the next one and repeat.

Congratulations, you're tanking!

Bosses

Of course downing bosses is where the true glory lies, as well as the best loot. The first boss you'll encounter in Ragefire Chasm is the demonic dog Agarogg.

Reading his Dungeon Journal entry, you'll see he has two key abilities: 地狱冲锋 and 烈焰吐息. It's worth knowing this before the fight, as it helps you understand what will happen.

During the fight, he will occasionally cast 地狱冲锋 and charge off toward a random player. Because you know this is going to happen, you also know not to panic when it does - it doesn't mean you've lost agro, and he'll come back to you after his charge.

Secondly, knowing he will cast 烈焰吐息 means you should face him away from the party, so only you take the flame damage while the party attacks him from behind. Once you've started your attack, simply turn around so he's facing you and you're facing your party.

Before long he should be toast, and you're officially a boss tank!

Things to watch out for when tanking

There are several things to watch for as you tank.

Hunter & Warlock pets

Hunters and Warlocks have pets, and pets can be set to 'Agro' mode, which means that they do their best to keep enemies away from their 'owners'. When questing, this is a common setting, and both classes can forget to turn it off when in a dungeon.

For Warlocks, if they have their big purple Voidwalker out, ask them nicely if they can swap it for their damage dealing Imp instead.

For Hunters it's harder to know, but if you find that you keep losing the attention of mobs (because they start focussing on the Hunter pet), ask the Hunter to turn off Growl, which is the pet equivalent of your 清算之手.

Pullers

The other biggest problem with new tanking is the more experienced (and often better geared) players who are mainly concerned with rushing through the dungeons. They will often charge ahead, and pull most of the mobs themselves. This is considered bad behaviour, especially if you explain you're new to tanking. If this is happening, ask politely if they can let you pull and control the pace. If they refuse, you can either appeal to the rest of the group, or in the worst case, leave the party and queue in the dungeon finder again.

Slightly more advanced tips

The pull

One of the key skills for any tank is pulling mobs. It's vitally important you get that right, and the better you are at setting up the pull, the easier your job will be. Study each mob group as you approach and work out how best to get them attacking you. Many groups will have at least one spell caster, so make sure to always target them with your first 复仇者之盾 in order to cancel their spell casting temporarily.

Try to only pull small groups at a time, to put less strain on your healer. If there are two groups of four in close proximity for example, try to grab the first group before moving onto the second. You can do this by using your ranged attacks to get them to come to you, rather than you moving to them.

Rotating your camera

Another key skill for tanks is 'situational awareness'. This means being aware of what is going on around you. If you have tunnel vision and just focus on the mobs in front of you, you may miss the wandering mob that has walked up behind you and starts hitting on your healer.

Rotating the camera is the best way to handle this. Once you've engaged the mobs and have their attention, use your mouse-look (normally by holding right click on your mouse) to rotate the camera around so you can look backwards/forwards. This way if you see a wandering patrol ('pat') approaching, you can taunt or ranged pull them to you before they kill anyone else.

Grabbing adds

Always be ready to grab adds that may arrive on the scene mid fight. Often a wandering group of monsters will appear from around a blind corner and join the fight. If you suspect that might happen, keep your 复仇者之盾 in reserve so you can use it to target the new group and pull them into the fun. Taunting with 清算之手 is another good method, though that only targets a single mob.

Mouse buttons

Finally if you have spare buttons on your mouse, it's definitely worth thinking about mapping some of the key abilities to those buttons. For example mapping 清算之手 to a mouse button makes it very quick to use in desperate situations.

Tanking beyond level 15

New Dungeons

You'll level very quickly tanking your way through dungeons. Before long the next batch of dungeons will be unlocked: The Deadmines, Wailing Caverns, and Shadowfang Keep. These are all great zones, and well worth your time. Wailing Caverns has a bit of a tricky layout, so ask for help from your party for the first few times through there. Wowhead guides are your friends for learning maps and studying tactics before entering a dungeon. One tip is to queue for specific dungeons (instead of random ones), which means you can be confident of what you're about to get into.

New Skills

New skills will be unlocked as you level. As a tank, some are far more useful than others - don't be afraid to demote the less useful ones to the far reaches of your action bars, or even leave them off completely. Some of the key ones to keep an eye out for are 圣疗术 (an epic heal that will restore you to full health), 圣盾术 (a temporary damage reduction buff), and 正义之锤 (a area-of-effect attack for tanking trash mobs). Study their effects and add them to your rotation or cooldown bars as appropriate.